Village Among Nations: "Canadian" Mennonites in a Transnational World, 1916-2006

by Royden Loewen

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Between the 1920s and the 1940s, 10,000 traditionalist Mennonites emigrated from western Canada to isolated rural sections of Northern Mexico and the Paraguayan Chaco; over the course of the twentieth century, they became increasingly scattered through secondary migrations to East Paraguay, British Honduras, Bolivia, and elsewhere in Latin America. Despite this dispersion, these Canadian-descendant Mennonites, who now number around 250,000, developed a rich transnational culture over the years, resisting allegiance to any one nation and cultivating a strong sense of common peoplehood based on a history of migration, nonviolence, and distinct language and dress. Village among Nations recuperates a missing chapter of Canadian history: the story of these Mennonites who emigrated from Canada for cultural reasons, but then in later generations "returned" in large numbers for economic and social security. Royden Loewen analyzes a wide variety of texts, by men and women - letters, memoirs, reflections on family debates on land settlement, exchanges with curious outsiders, and deliberations on issues of citizenship.
They relate the untold experience of this uniquely transnational, ethno-religious community.
  • ISBN10 1442646853
  • ISBN13 9781442646858
  • Publish Date 25 November 2013 (first published 21 October 2013)
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country CA
  • Imprint University of Toronto Press
  • Format Hardcover
  • Pages 340
  • Language English